Behind his glasses, long, light brown beard and black suit, topped with a yarmulke, Rabbi Shimy Heidingsfeld taught the reason for life, its origin and the tools to accompany the journey.
Heidingsfeld’s purpose in teaching was to help attendees understand the reason for living.
“We are here on this world to make it a better place for God,” he said.
Heidingsfeld gave four tools to live a proper life. The first is to take a Sabbath, or day of rest, which is meant to rejuvenate a person. The second tool is to give: charity.
“You take from yourself and give to others,” said Heidingsfeld.
He shared an example on charity to help reveal what that should be like in life. “It’s better to give 100 pennies than $1,” said Heidingsfeld.
This example helped Moorpark College student, 19-year-old Jessica MacMartin.
“I like the idea of continuously doing good rather than doing good in just one day,” said MacMartin.
To educate and teach one another was the third tool Heidingsfeld gave. “Do what I say, not as I do: False,” said Heidingsfeld.
He reasoned that the youth and our peers need to be led by example. The final tool was that of repentance, to return to God. “It’s looking backwards, saying, what happened that I messed up, what can I do to fix it, to prevent it,” said Heidingsfeld.
Heidingsfeld summed up his teachings by describing the afterlife. When the body passes, the soul moves on, according to Judaism. He said that there are both heaven and hell. He said if a body spends his or her whole life doing good, he or she go to heaven. Yet he also taught that if an individual doesn’t do the good that he or she were meant to do, there is hell.
“Hell is basically the idea of showing your life, it is really painful, there is a lot of shame,” said Heidingsfeld. “Hell is not fire, a physical fire.”
“Then the soul is refined and moved to heaven,” he said.
Heidingsfeld also taught reincarnation, that the souls of people who pass away return to a new body to do more good on Earth for God.
“God’s kind of going green,” said Heidingsfeld.
Matt Higby, a 21-year-old Moorpark College student, commented on Heidingsfeld’s teachings.
“What he was saying does not line up with Biblical Judaism or Torah [but] I thought it was interesting how Judaism has evolved from the Old Testament to now,” said Higby.
Heidingsfeld gave many stories and examples to help explain the reason and tools to live a good life. “The point of life is a higher mission: to gather spiritual success for the higher life,” he said.